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The laziest cities in America

The laziest cities in America

While America may have a reputation for laziness when it comes to physical activity, “lazy” is not in the vocabulary of residents of Norwich, Vermont. The small town in the Green Mountain State has produced eleven Olympians, an impressive feat considering its population of 3,000 people. While Norwich serves as a shining example of the United States’ limitless athletic potential, it is not necessarily indicative of the nation as a whole.

A Stanford University study analyzed walking data across 46 countries by looking at smartphone statistics to see how many daily steps people were taking on average. The United States’ average was revealed to be near the bottom of the list, with only 4,774 steps per day. As the town of Norwich demonstrates, athletic engagement varies greatly from location to location. This begs the question: which geographic communities are the biggest offenders when it comes to this lower-than-average daily step count?

Using data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention project 500 Cities: Local Data for Better Health, Stacker listed the laziest cities in America. The cities were ranked first according to the rate of physical inactivity outside of work among those 18 years and older, and in the event of a tie, the city with the greater adult obesity rate was deemed the lazier of the two. Since rates are the same in Hartford, CT and Beaumont, TX, the two are listed as a tie.